


The Little Devil on Your Shoulder You Can't Ignore

by CausticCouture



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Crime AU, Dysfunctional Relationships, M/M, Manipulation, Sexual References, partners in crime
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-09-04
Packaged: 2018-03-22 09:47:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3724327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CausticCouture/pseuds/CausticCouture
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hartley comes to Cisco before "The Sound and the Fury." Hartley feels betrayed by Wells, Cisco feels betrayed by Barry, they team up to plot revenge against STAR labs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Paz's "I Like the Good Girls (But Love the Bad Girls More)."  
> Loosely stems from a crime!AU oneshot I wrote a while back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said not to expect anything from me until I was done with my finals.  
> But I can only review so many notes on DNA replication before I need helicase to make me unwind (that reference counts as studying).  
> Do note that this will be the first longer piece I've written in a while; I have an idea of what direction this is going in, just... not the route it'll take to get there. So, bear with me, as it might be rough in places.

Running away never solved anything.

Or that's what he wanted to believe, at least. Because no matter what, he had run away.

_Because he said_ Iris. _Not "Oh, Cisco, yes," but "Oh,_ Iris _, yes."_ After everything, he was just another _afterthought_ ; a placeholder for what Barry actually wanted. He might have loved him, but the feelings weren't reciprocated, which was really the worst part. And he needed to be outside to clear his head, and the next thing he knew, his feet hit the pavement and he was gone and as he ran back home (or as close to a facsimile of home as his one room apartment could be; the lab was really home, but that was broken now), of course it started raining.

He was soaked by the time he entered the building. Soaked and crying and a total emotional and physical mess. He couldn't get a hold of himself on the stairs.It was only noticing the door to his apartment ever so slightly ajar that caused a change in state. He should call the police (calling Barry was out of the question), he should be smart, he shouldn't just open the door and stroll right in.

But he did any way. And saw the very last silhouette he would ever expect.

"Hello Cisquito."

Hartley Rathaway, his ex... what was the term for someone who didn't love you, but you might have loved, but they just used you when they felt like it and whatever, you got attention from them that you held on to and almost cherished, but no, they only so much as looked in your direction if it was convenient to them and then they just up and leave with no explanation whatsoever and you think you're supposed to be happy that they're gone but you're not and _Christ_ , if given the option now, you'd jump them, but you're not sure if you wanted to kill them or fuck them or make love to them or just touch them or anything to get the past hour and a half you've spent thinking about someone else out of your head? Whatever it was, it was sitting on his bed, taking in everything, just waiting to use Cisco's state to its advantage. It frowned.

"Something's wrong?"

"He called me 'Iris.'" Cisco said, on the verge of tears once more, against every instinct screaming at him to do otherwise. But new instincts formed. Two could play at whatever game Hartley was playing tonight. "Barry... Dr. Wells just hired him, I think he's training a new protege, he called me 'Iris.'"

He could see the jealousy rising in Hartley's eyes. "I want revenge. And it seems like you wouldn't mind it also."

"You want revenge because Dr. Wells has a new protege?" Of course it wasn't that simple; otherwise Hartley would just take his revenge and go at everything alone. No; there was an ulterior motive going on, and Cisco was going to find it.

"I want revenge because Harrison Wells knew he was going to destroy the city. Having a new boytoy is just icing on the cake, especially if the boytoy can't keep his lovers straight, if you'll pardon the expression, wouldn't you say so?" Hartley had stood up, and was moving closer and closer to Cisco.

"So why come here?" Hartley was standing next to him, and he knew the question was about to answer itself.

"Old time's sake, mostly," Hartley almost whispered, shortly before kissing Cisco. _No, no, this is wrong, you're not going to let him do this, not again, don't listen too much, no, stop._ "And the way I remember it, you have something of mine. I want my gloves back."

Ah. Yes. _His_ gloves. Because Cisco absolutely didn't do any of the final tweaking that, y'know, made them work. Made sound waves targeted. But no, Rathaway came up with the design, so they were _his_ gloves. Cisco bit his lower lip (yes, keep going, he liked it when you'd do that). "How willing are you to change your plans?"

"Depends. How well can you convince me to change them?"

Cisco grinned. "I think I can figure out a way how."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's done with finals and moved back home for the summer? Here's a hint; I'm celebrating with a new chapter!!

He regretted it in the morning.

Well, no, not exactly; he didn't regret the entire evening. He would never regret having Hartley Rathaway on his knees. He would never regret "Yes, yes, just like that, harder, yes," and he especially would never regret "Oh, _Cisco_!"

He wouldn't regret waking up next to a naked Hartley.

He regretted negotiations of the use of his tech. He regretted agreeing on revenge against STAR Labs. He regretted being convinced to hurt his friends, his family.

He regretted that if he backed out, he would just be talked back in. And, well, more things, quite honestly, to convince him to go through with his plans. Hartley seldom took "no" for an answer, which was marvelous and infuriating.

He could, of course, tell the rest of Team Flash what was going on, and that would lead to Hartley in the Pipeline, at his disposal and all the blood was now rushing out of his head so that plan would never get thought out. But, that would lead to a lot of explaining he didn't want to do.

He wondered what it was like to be bad.

Barry had only slighted him. Dr. Wells was largely good to him, but after the cold gun... there was a dark side there, and he wondered if Dr. Wells wouldn't soon turn, although whether or not the stories Hartley told had any input on this curiosity was anyone's guess. It wasn't impossible that Barry's one infraction was just a symptom of a larger disorder, that Cisco never meant anything to him. Though, again, if was Hartley just distorting miniscule truths into elaborate lies was up for interpretation.

Catlin was the only variable in the equation. Catlin, who had never done anything wrong. Catlin, who had suffered enough already through faults that weren't her own. Catlin, who didn't deserve revenge. Catlin, who would tell him he was being ridiculous. Catlin, the angel to Hartley's devil.

And Cisco knew if he was going to go along with Hartley's plan, if they were going to get revenge, he needed to add a caveat to the plan.

So, before he left for work (and of course Hartley still slept like a rock, because actually getting to have this conversation would be to easy), he left a note on a counter.

_Gone to STAR for what you want. You'll get it if we modify the plan; leave Catlin alone._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, fun fact; this work was published pretty recently, but drafted WAY earlier, and the draft date was showing as the publish date (does that make sense out loud, because I know what happened, but explanations can be weird, especially as I don't have a whiteboard to draw a picture on). As a result, it got buried for a short while. I'm... not apologizing, because it's not my fault, but I also don't know why I mentioned this at all. Eh.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything wound up taking longer than usual. Hartley... didn't like the changes in the plan. He thought Cisco showed too much sympathy; that if they left one survivor, sooner or later, Cisco would change the plan so much that he would never get his revenge. So there were... certain negotiations, some involving less talking than others. But finally, after the course of almost two months, they were ready to carry out their plan.

Of course, there were other rough patches. Wells, clearly afraid of another cold gun incident happening, had tightened security at STAR, which further complicated matters. It wasn't until weeks later that he was able to piece together a few... tools of the trade (he wouldn't call them "weapons;" he didn't design weapons, not even the cold gun, the cold gun was a proof of concept, thank you very much). His one room apartment just wasn't the same as STAR, but he made something despite the circumstances. Not an  _exact_ replica of Hartley's original gloves, of course, but rather what Cisco considered to be a better version, that utilized pure vibrations rather than sound waves. Nobody thought he would be able to smuggle the spare parts he needed out of the lab, but they underestimated his cleverness.

Hartley didn't. Hartley counted on it. But Hartley was also watching some trashy soap opera. This was happening more and more often; Hartley making himself at home in Cisco's apartment. It was almost like they were not-dating again. Which wasn't exactly the mindset Cisco wanted to see if they were going to be partners in crime (and he hated referring to them as such, but really, what was the better term?) the next day. Cisco cleared his throat.

"I can't imagine what they'd do if they found out about our plans. I'm basically harboring a fugitive at this point."

"I can't imagine what they'd do if they found out you were basically going to become a fugitive at this point. Now shut up, Dr. Sexy's... being sexy."

"We're committing a large scale robbery tomorrow, and you're concerned about Dr. Sexy?" True, the crime was, oddly enough, the least of their worries, and was far smaller than they could have done. But the crime wasn't the point; getting caught was.

"Can you blame me?"

"It just doesn't seem like you; Hartley Rathaway, speaks six languages, went to Swiss boarding school, top of his MIT class, and likes cheesy soap operas."

"What can I say, you're not my only guilty pleasure."

"Sorry, just... nervous." No, nervous wasn't quite the right word. But he wasn't aware of a word that captured his feelings exactly; there was something odd when you had to go back and work with someone you had a brief torrid almost affair with, until they said someone else's name in the heat of it all, and dealing with that while simultaneously gaining knowledge that your boss might have planned to destroy the city, and having to deal with that, all while planning the downfall of them both while trying to keep the only good person you worked with safe from everything. Joss Whedon would come up with the perfect term. But that wasn't important. What was important was that something didn't feel quite right. Something was telling Cisco to turn around and stop this nonsense, that Hartley was being manipulative again and he'd wind up with the shitty end of the stick again.

But whatever it was was silenced when Hartley kissed him behind his ear.

"I can think of something that might make you less... nervous."

Tomorrow was going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. So, you may have noticed there was a colossal delay between this and the last chapter. I kinda did that thing where I wrote myself into a corner, and this entire work might wind up being a bit shorter than I had planned because I liked extremely few ways of getting out of said corner.  
> 2\. I kinda sorta thought the finale showed the potential of Cisco being darker as a formal metahuman, which I AM SO DIGGING. Although now I'm going to have to go the summer (and perhaps beyond) with zero scenes with Tom Cavanagh and Carlos Valdes giving some of the greatest acting I've ever seen (like, they've become my dream cast for John Logan's "Red"), which saddens me greatly (oh, God, I sound like a colossal dork).


	5. Hiatus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little more than an extended author's note

So, a few people wanted me to continue with this; I do have every intention of finishing. There's just been a perfect storm of bad events, culminating my losing the flash drive with the file that I kept my outline on, and I have to start more or less from scratch. It's not impossible that I even left it at my old apartment, and everything's lost to the world.  
If you cane into this expecting the greatest update ever, I'm so sorry, but I also felt that it's partially my responsibility as a writer to let you know I'm on somewhat indefinite hiatus, at least until I come up with a new outline. Thanks for sticking with me, and I hope to get something finished soon-ish.


End file.
